Now, let’s go back a bit.  Back to 1990 in fact.  Definitely not a golden year for many things, starting on a Monday as it did (let’s face it, the Boomtown Rats had the right of it concerning Mondays).  Iraq invaded Kuwait, Maggie-the-iron-panted Thatcher was still in power (for most of it) and the Royal NZ navy discontinued it’s daily rum ration.  But, on the plus side; Mandela was freed, East & West Germany were re-united and the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from it’s list of official diseases (can this really be true? You can’t trust everything you read on Wikipedia).

At home, the still young and somewhat fresh Channel 4 were showing the (mostly) Scottish comedy show ‘Absolutely’ and my then still youthful arse was being laughed well and truly off.  One sketch, and the point to this rambling, popped into my head the other day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9pa-Cgmqhk&t=20s

The protestors marching against the lefties and the vague but disgruntled opposition (first sketch in the episode linked).

What do we want?

We don’t know!

When do we want it?

NOW!

It set me thinking, with all the talking and raising the profile of what is becoming quite a serious attempt to take on the corporate machine (more on this some other time), just what is it that we actually want from Wessex Water?  Now, as things currently stand, you’re all just having to suffer from my stream of consciousness here, there is no organisation standing up and being counted as of yet so you’re left with my personal opinions.

And, While being clear about what we want may be tough as it’s only me talking here, I am pretty confident when I write that I know what we DON’T want… A repeat of the scene below.

So what can we realistically ask for?

We can’t achieve much to help our rivers in the immediate term, however, there ARE things that could happen.

Wessex Water claim a hosepipe ban would only deliver a 8-10 ML reduction per day (for the confused, that’s MILLION Litres per day) across their 100 water sources.  Now conveniently, the most at risk (to my mind) source – Chitterne is having around 5-10 ML\d taken from it.  Wouldn’t it be a sustainable and strong show of intent for the hosepipe ban to be implemented, cementing the importance of water efficiency with their customers especially if it was backed up by an immediate temporary cessation of abstraction from the Chitterne source? Wouldn’t that be a great win for Wessex Water in PR terms (actually being open and honest about the what and why instead of hiding behind smoke and mirrors) AND great news for the Wylye.

I firmly believe that Wessex Water need to communicate much more clearly about where their water comes from.  Wessex Water’s current PR campaigns do nothing to explain to the residents of Chard or Bath where their water comes from, nor the damage that the abstraction does.  They need to fess up about the reasons why the local water levels in Somerset are high, the levels in the chalk aquifers are desperately low and yet they STILL continue to remove clear chalk water instead of cleaning and using local water sources close to use.  Come on, please do tell us clearly and unambiguously, what percentage of the water removed from the Avon catchment is exported out of  the area?  Even in general annualised terms, why is the data so hard to get hold of? Lets have proper open dialogue instead of clever words and part-truths.

I still continue to see heads in the sand over acceptance that the over-abstraction causes damage and as the esteeemed Mr Hayes added as a comment some time back (quoting Alan Greenspan?):

“When you find that well qualified and respected commentators are denying the truth of something that is as plain as the nose on your face,there is always a good reason for this–self interest.”

You can hire as many tame environmental scientists as you like, write as many reports as you like but the reality is on the ground, not sitting on a shelf in Claverton Down.  The reality isn’t in massaged statistics, it’s in the practical experience of the people who have lived and worked caring for the rivers for decades. It’s in the memory of the people who have lived alongside the Wylye all their lives and have seen it degrade from river to stream.  I popped into the (excellent) Hillside Cafe and Codford the other day for my occasional fry-up fix, and to my surprise the 10 or so customers inside were chatting with the staff about the horrendous state of the Wylye and how none of them had ever seen it looking this poor, even in 1976.  Now, if locals are concerned enough to be chatting about it, and more concerned about the state of the Wylye than last nights soaps or what Cameron did or didn’t do yesterday then the reality is more serious that the Wessex Water spin machine realise.

Oh, while I’m talking about Claverton Down by the way, HELLO WESSEX WATER EMPLOYEES. Glad you’re enjoying the read, it’s nice to see your IP addresses in my visitor logs

So other than the hosepipe ban which I don’t believe that Wessex Water are brave enough to do, and the PR campaign offering the truth what do we do?

Well we have a one time opportunity here, to make the currently toothless Environment Agency and Natural England who currently it seems are in position to do nothing but protect Wessex Water’s back, actually re-act to the terrible state of the local rivers, sorry, streams (as that’s all we’re left with).  The abstraction licensing regime should be fit for purpose, and should reflect environmental conditions on the ground.  Daily limits should flex dependant on the amount of water available in the aquifers and in the river channels.  The chance to influence abstraction licenses doesn’t come along often and I believe this shouldn’t be missed.  We cannot afford for the old-world, gentlemanly, nodding dog approach any more.  We need to take a more direct tack, free from the shackles of a ‘fishery’ association.  This is an issue that will affect every one of us that loves rivers; canoeists, anglers, photographers, dog walkers.  We all need to respond for once, and respond vocally and publicly.

We also need to bring the fight to the hidden beast, the shadowy spectre, OFWAT.  How the organisation in what seems the position of total responsibilty for overseeing our water industry can be purely focussed on cheap water for consumers is beyond me.  Deflecting environmental issues onto the EA and NE yet in the same breath blocking investment because it would add a minuscule amount to the price of water they are clearly one of the biggest barriers to us sorting out the parlous state of our local rivers .  Water companies should be able to make the investment required to get away from damaging abstraction practices without being blocked by the naysayers and nitpickers from OFWAT’s Birmingham based offices, I mean seriously, have any of them even seen the Chitterne Brook?

On the subject of the Chitterne.  I keep coming back to WxW’s dependance on stream support, whereby the water company (in the case of Chitterne) simply take ANOTHER 5 ML/d on top of the existing 5-11 ML/d from the aquifer and pump it straight into the river simply to keep the river running.  It is completely nuts.  One of the most stupid ideas I’ve ever come across.  Just take 5ML/d less in the first place? Duh…

Let’s say you have £1000 a month going into your bank account and you spend £800 on your bills and going out etc.  You’ve built up a bit of a cushion from that £200 excess and life’s peachy.  Your circumstances change and you’re now only getting £700 a month into your account.  It’s not going to take long until you can no longer afford to live the way you have in the past and you may realise that you need to reduce the amount you take out each month in case the washing machine blows up or something.

So for our rivers, circumstances have changed.  Changes in climate are bringing rain in warmer months, and in heavy bursts instead of nice steady prolonged winter rainfall.  Demand for water increases year on year but we don’t invest in other sources, we continue to rely on the ever-present-in-the-past cushion.  However, the amount of water recharging the aquifers is less stable from year to year but we still continue to remove the same amounts, WxW taking up to their annual license conditions and then claiming to be reducing abstraction due to environmental conditions.  It doesn’t take a hydrogeologist to work out what will happen.  Wessex Water are living beyond the aquifers means, and it’s the rivers that are suffering; the cushion is gone and the washing machine just blew up, along with the TV and the toaster.  To put it bluntly, we’re fucked.

I know it probably sounds pathetic, here I am rumbling along with a couple thousand individual visits per month on some random fishing blog (well it started out fishing related honest), printing up a few stickers and chatting to anyone who’ll listen. What can I achieve? Well, I have to believe that it’ll make at least some small difference, else we can wave goodbye to our chalk rivers and hello to managing the spatey streams they will become inside the next decades.

Please, if you want to get involved, you want to know more, you want a sticker, you want to write to Wessex Water, Ofwat, the EA or your MP, have a read over the last few blog entries and just get in touch.

Malcolm

A few weeks rain and some flooded fields doesn’t alter the fact that Wessex Water are stripping unsustainable quantities of water from our aquifers.  Our rivers cannot survive this over greedy profit driven gluttony for much longer so act now before the Wylye ends up looking like a muddy ditch.

If you’d like a sticker please comment below or drop me an email.  Just gauging how much interest there’ll be before I order them.  I won’t charge for them but if anyone would like to donate a few quid towards the printing and posting that’d be appreciated, just hit the paypal button below.

Thanks

It’s April 1st. Opening day on the Salisbury & District AC waters.  I’m on my way up out of Wilton by 6:45, heading over the chalk towards Durrington and into a morning soaked in amber.  It’s been close to 22 degrees for the last week and we’ve been lulled into a false sense of summer, however this morning the caramac coloured fields and eau-de-nil verges are decorated with fingers of delicate frost.  The sun sits low in the sky, burning with a faded pastel hue on a background of whispy blue.

I’m meeting Luke and the plan is to take a look at a new piece of water just downstream of Bulford Bridge.  As we pull up into the field three deer, disturbed from their peaceful grazing bound across the frosty meadows like Wiltshire’s very own savannah gazelles.  The early morning temperature punishes us for foolishly thinking it was summer as we tie on light tippet material, long leaders and tiny flies, icing up fingers reminding us of days pike fishing in months gone by.  A few fish are sporadically moving to microscopic midges but there are no real rises to speak of so it’s on with a little bead head scruffy nymph.  We work our way methodically upstream but there’s nothing much to show for it.  It’s very early in the season, the water is the lowest I’ve ever seen it and there is no weed cover for the fish, just half a foot of slightly white tinged water flowing over red flecked gravels.  A fallen bush on the far bank has created a scour hole and water behind it is deeper and shadier than the rest of the stretch.  Luke plops his small nymph into the hole and is rewarded immediately with a beautiful start to the season.  Speckled perfection, albeit in miniature.  A second cast brings another fish from exactly the same spot, peas in a pod.

Not wanting to hammer what is likely to be the only fish holding spot on the entire river given the current conditions we decide to move on.  We’ve ambled a few hours away and the frost has now been replaced by bright sunshine and a light breeze.  Feeling like we’ve earned it we pop into Friar Tucks and cause some serious damage to our hearts by gorging on a mahussive breakfast before heading back up over the chalk, dropping down into Wilton and the Nadder.

The Nadder has dropped dramatically in the last two weeks, probably to the tune of 18 inches and it’s markedly down on where it should be at this time of year.  Gravel bones are bleached dry and alder roots stand proud of the water, tumbling like an old man’s beard until red tinged new shoots finally reach the surface.

Even with the alarmingly low conditions it’s still a great feeling to be here on the first day of the season.  Somewhat life affirming in fact.  The sun dapples our backs as we walk up under tree cover and across meadow, climbing stiles and gates as familiar as friends faces.  You know that way you can find your way to the bathroom at night without turning on the light? You just know where to side-step to avoid the bed, just where the door handle should be. That’s how I feel about my stretch of the Nadder.  I know where the Salmon Redds should be, know where the big male trout normally sits in a shady stretch.  I know which rung on the gate wobbles and almost every pot hole as I wend my way across the meadows.  It’s as familiar as my house.

I slide quietly into a tree covered bend, 4 or 5 fish are steadily rising in front of me and there are large dark olives floating downstream, spiralling in the current like dancers.  After a while Luke gives up watching me put the fly into the tree above my head and sneaks off upstream to chase his own.  But this is my home water, I’m in no rush and although I loose three flies on the first fish I get him in the end.  Perseverance pays off and I’m rewarded with my first Nadder brownie of the year, a half pound of wild unspoilt beauty.  For a matter of seconds I’m holding the essence of spring in my wet hands, butter bellied kaleidoscope spotted perfection.  A second fish from the same bend is enough for me and I clamber out of the bank, like the creature from the black lagoon and amble upstream to find Luke who is equally entranced by his own quarry.

A bit of sunshine, a few fish and a good friend.  Fishing really is quite a simple pleasure really, it doesn’t have to be complicated.  I end the afternoon filming some lamprey spawning on the exposed gravels then walk back across the fields of my memory and head home.  A new season is the joy of promise, the anticipation of things to come.

Malcolm

So, it seems quite a few of us have emailed, tweeted and written to Wessex Water now regarding the disastrous state that our rivers our in locally and the water companies headstrong denial of the evidence on the ground.  Many of us have now had the same copy-and-paste-fob-you-off-with crap reply and I just thought I’d put a little post up with a few replies to their reply, if that makes sense…  Wessex Water reply in grey, my thoughts in green.  

In summary though, what BOLLOCKS! It’s about time the people who cared about the rivers stood up to be counted, we should be less prepared to accept their crap in exchange for supporting a few charities.  We should be pushing for a complete cessation of pumping from the most sensitive sources and we need to start getting factually accurate and challenging the current status quo in the courts.  I say it’s about time we start to fight for our rivers, if required, let’s bite the hand that feeds.

——– Dear blah blah blah ————————-

In the western region we are slightly more fortunate in terms of rainfall and Wessex Water’s resource position is currently satisfactory, with reservoirs at 85%. Groundwater levels and river flows are low, but overall our resource position puts us in band two of our four drought planning bands, which is relatively normal for the time of year. This is the heart of the argument.  their bands are clearly wrong in that they take no account of ‘environmental drought’.  That is, drought that affects nature rather than a shortage of water for human consumption.  The other issue is that unlike many water companies Wessex Water (WxW) are looking after a geographical area that covers wildly different water resource scenarios.  It is true to say that reservoirs are currently ok on Exmoor and river levels aren’t that bad in Somerset but WxW are deliberately misleading people here, covering up the criminal damage being played out on the chalk rivers of south west Wiltshire.  These rivers, protected by international law, are now at desperately  low levels, some lower in February than they were in August of 1976.  The simple fact is that locally in SW Wiltshire our chalk rivers are in as bad a state as any across the rest of the UK.  We are not “ALL RIGHT” we are not in a better situation than many.  It’s about time that WxW started owning up to how bad the situation is and communicate that in a robust manner instead of all this corporate PR bullshit.  I believe that by being honest WxW could actually gain the respect of their customers.

Restrictions on water use are part of our strategy, but they come into play in the fourth zone. Currently we do not anticipate restrictions or drought permits being required this year. There is no penalty from Ofwat for imposing a hosepipe ban. This is not what we have been led to believe although we must be careful with the use of wording, I’ll keep digging on this one.

To protect the environment during a drought, we always maintain compliance with the conditions attached to our abstraction licences. For many sources these conditions require us to take less water They may indeed meet compliance conditions but lets not forget, these conditions are just about being ‘least worst’, not about being a responsible, sustainable company.  WxW are gleefully telling people that they are reducing abstraction from Chitterne currently due to the drought, what they’re not saying is that before reducing abstraction they had taken almost their full years quota from the source so actually they had no choice, and looking at it another way, they have been incredibly reckless with a stream which was suffering a serious low flow situation throughout a dry autumn and winter when river flows are low (Codford source) or require us to provide stream support water (Brixton Deverill, Kingston Deverill and Chitterne). Stream support is to my mind a potentially dangerous feat of sleight of hand on the part of the water companies.  It allows them to continue taking unsustainable quantities of water away from our rivers, and by sinking ANOTHER borehole, take more water from the aquifer and pump it into he river.  Why not take less in he first place?  The immediate effect may be that the river doesn’t dry up but the consequence is that the aquifer is depleted further.  It’s a sticking plaster on a gaping wound. Like someone plastering over cracks in a wall to hide the problem away.  Also, No-one really understands the long term effects of the long term depletion of an aquifer, will it collapse like oil fields? Certainly serious questions are now being asked, particularly in light of the drying out of rivers like the Kennet.

In some cases it is recognised that licence conditions have not been set appropriately. Where this is the case we work with the Environment Agency, Natural England, Ofwat (our economic regulator) and other groups, such as the Wiltshire Fisheries Association, to agree changes required. The EA and WxW have agreed that many of the current abstractions are not sustainable and are causing damage to the rivers however they are not set to do anything about it until 2018. Too little, too late.  As you will be aware, in 2011 we reduced the annual licence on our Chitterne source by almost 75%, The point here is that abstractions should be fluid, flexing to the amount of water that a river can afford to lose, without the false economy of stream support and on completion of our “Grid” project further reductions will be made at some of our sources in the River Wylye and Bourne catchments. Details of this Grid project are available at http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/about/thre … px?id=6960. The ‘GRID’ project gives no guarantees that it will actually benefit anything other than WxW’s ability to serve consumers and improve their financial bottom line. What guarantees do we have that it will be used to benefit our rivers? Do we really expect WxW to use it to allow them to reduce their dependence on clean chalk water? I really don’t think I’m being cynical here when I say, no of course it bloody won’t.  If they wanted to do that they’d be investing in local storage and treatment at Yeovil, Chard, Taunton, bath etc. I understand that they are actually bringing on another water source on the Bristol Avon but this is a token gesture given how much water they could be storing and treating locally in non-chalk areas.

We are informing our customers about the impact of the dry weather in a variety of ways. For example we have recently updated our website to reflect the current conditions (http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/water-and- … px?id=8052) and will be featuring the dry weather and the need to use water wisely, in a customer magazine that will be sent to all our customers during May. About bloody time, and maybe too late this year…  No amount of ‘communication’ will push the issue to the forefront of the publics minds like a water use restriction.  It may only save the Wylye somewhere in the region of 8-10ML a day if there was a ban put in place but it’s the attitude shift that would be the real winner from a ban.

I hope this is helpful.

Yours sincerely

XXXXX XXXXXXX

Customer Relations

Copy and paste the following and post it in twitter

@wessexwater Our chalkstreams are experiencing serious drought made worse by your over abstraction. Please implement drought plans NOW!

Or post/email the letter below.

email:

press.office@wessexwater.co.uk

————– copy and paste letter below & amend to suit your opinions ———

Dear Wessex Water,

I am writing as a one of your customers and as someone who has become increasingly concerned about the lack of water in our internationally protected chalk based rivers, particularly the Rivers Wylye and it’s tributaries.  Even when we have a good wet winter, which recharges the chalk aquifer fully, the flow rates are usually very poor by the end of every summer and considerably below the environment agency’s long-term average for recorded river flows.

The current protracted drought that we are experiencing is adding to the already significant impact of damaging levels of abstraction from the Wylye’s catchment for public water supply and is making the situation very much worse.

Recent announcements in the national news that other Water Companies slightly further East have seen fit to introduce water restrictions as a result of very low rainfall and diminishing water supplies have made me and all those in this region concerned with the welfare of Wiltshire’s chalk rivers ponder the question – why have Wessex Water not followed suit?

There is absolutely no doubt that water resources in this region are equally as much “in drought” as those further east.

The Environment Agency monthly Hydrology data shows this very clearly.

• The mean monthly flow for Nov 2011 at South Newton on the Wylye was the lowest on record.
• The groundwater levels in the Tilshead aquifer, seen as the major indicator for base flows for the Upper Avon and Wylye – were their lowest February levels since 1976.
• 8 out of the last 12 months in this region have had below average rainfall.
• The 5 month recharge period of Oct 2011 to Feb 2012 only received 68% of the average rainfall, resulting in the lowest recharge since 1992 and the 9^th lowest since 1914.
• The mean monthly flows as a % of long term average in the Wylye at South Newton have shown a very worrying downward spiral since Nov 2011 as shown below. The figure for Feb is the lowest of all the rivers shown on the Environment Agency’s Water Situation Report web site.

Nov = 32%    Dec = 26%    Jan = 25%    Feb = 22%

Groundwater aquifers are a finite resource and abstraction rates need to be kept to the absolute minimum during this summer if we are not to see very serious damage to the aquatic environment. Most winterbourne streams in Wiltshire and Dorset failed to flow at all this winter and I fear many upper river stretches will dry up resulting in huge losses of fish, invertebrates and other wildlife species supposedly internationally protected by SSSI and SAC status.

Wessex Water should be making all of its customers very aware of the perilous state of our rivers through proper use of all media communication methods so as to encourage the use of less water.

Wessex Water should also recognise the importance of ‘environmental drought’ and I believe that your drought plans should be triggered by environmental conditions, not just by water resource considerations.

Regardless of reduced incomes from supply and financial penalties from OFWAT I believe that a properly publicised hosepipe ban should be introduced now, while it can still be of some use.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,

——— end —————

–edit–

I’ve had an email from Wessex Water pointing out a couple of innacuarcies in my opinions.  OK, I’ll give them the benfit of clearing those couple of things up.  Apparently they don’t export from the Avon to Taunton (but does that mean from anywhere on the Avon catchment or just from the Avon itself?) and they don’t mix the water due to Nitrates as the Tone water is particularly low in these.  I’ve asked for clarification of what water IS exported from catchment and  why.  I don’t expect a particularly illuminating response but will be delighted if I do.

That said, I’m pleased that people are noticing and emailing, tweeting and sending letters as despite a couple of details the problem still remains.  Wessex Water ARE taking too much water away from our streams and rivers, and their refusal to implement drought plans based on environmental conditions instead of water resource factors is plainly wrong.

Malcolm

–edit–

Anglers.

Whether we worship the briny turbulence of the ocean, breathtaking in it’s mood swings or the lilly lined still waters whose murky depths reflect ponderous thought and light alike, shimmering in early summer mist fringed mornings.  Whether we find our salvation in the sweep of a mountainous river, bursting with blue tinged oxygenated energy or in the pastoral peace, the indefinable rightness and sense of place of a southern chalkstream.  No matter where we find our footsteps draw us, we all depend on one simple thing.

H₂O

Our entire angling world is ultimately derived from a few covalent bonds holding together one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms.  A sobering thought.  There is no new super-space-agey rod, no über fly made of selected feathers from a endangered madagascan ducks arse hand picked by virgins, no magic hat.  There is nothing that can help when the very fabric, the very medium for which our sport/hobby/obsession depends is under threat.

Threats come in many shapes and forms; pollution, climate change, changes in land use, siltation, increasing population.  Locally on our beautiful chalkstreams, the birthplace of modern fly fishing, our rivers are beset on all sides.  The biggest threat to our local rivers however boils down to one word.  Greed.

Our local water companies are stripping a natural asset and pumping it miles and miles away simply to save cash.  It’s cheaper for them to take our beautiful low nitrate water from the Chitterne borehole and deliver it to Bath and Taunton than it is to clean up the plentiful water that exists there.  This isn’t a complicated argument, it’s not saying that the water is needed in Somerset as they don’t have their own.  There isn’t a technological reason to not strip the nitrates from the local sources.  It’s simple bloody economics.  Simple greed.  Simply wrong.

Wessex water, who made in excess of £200m operating profit last year just don’t care about the rivers.  Not really.

There’s some lip service, some good PR stories and some supporting the odd charity but seriously? I’d rather they paid to clean the local water in Bath & Taunton and invested in local storage close by major urban centres than throw token gestures about.  How much of that £200m would it take?  I can’t begin to imagine how rosy the future would look for the Wylye if it had even 50% more of it’s flow than it does currently as we are now in mid March and it’s still running at around 23% of it’s long term average.  It’s not all abstraction I know, the Nadder which is less dependant on aquifers and less abstracted is currently looking more like a river in mid summer than mid March but it is faring significantly better than the Wylye.  The difference between the rivers a clear sign of the impact of wanton over abstraction.

Our abstraction licensing regime is broken.  We allow water to be taken in the same quantity regardless of whether we are experiencing a wet or dry year.  We have no control or minimum flow requirements to temper the increasingly apparent effects of climate change as flows shift to more extreme patterns of drought and flood.

With the Wylye on it’s bones and boreholes across SW wiltshire stressed it beggars belief to find a bullish Wessex Water on the BBC’s watchdog programme.

A Wessex Water Spokesman said:

“Wessex Water has halved leakage in the last 10 years and has not imposed water restrictions since 1976 and has no plans to do so this year.”

So, despite the quite real impending ecological damage, despite the fact that they could act to reduce it and despite the unknown long term damage caused by depletion of aquifers Wessex Water continue with their “I’m alright jack”, fuck-you-all mentality.  We can see the potentially disastrous situation our rivers are facing this summer but the biggest cause of their plight refuse to do anything to help?

Again, nothing but simple greed.

They refuse to put in place a drought plan which reflects environmental water conditions, those that affect the natural world and the state of the rivers, and react only to water scarcity for human consumption.  This is again borne from purely financial concerns.  Not surprising from a company wholly owned by people with absolutely no local interest or accountability.  If restrictions are imposed the water companies are financially impacted on, not only by reduced usage from consumers but also in penalties imposed by OFWAT.  How is it that the water industry regulators can impose penalties FOR protecting supplies?

The whole situation is bonkers.  The bloody villains are clear to see yet our entire regulatory framework, set up to protect these internationally protected habitats and species is failing to do anything but postulate and prepare discussion papers and long term action plans.  Our rivers don’t need a review of abstraction regimes to be implemented in 20 years, they need action NOW.  If our regulators were able to do their jobs, and not shackled by the ‘greenest government ever’ into being unable to impact on wealth creation, would we be seeing an internationally protected resource raped?  If I went out tomorrow and dug up Stonehenge or shot a golden eagle I’d be arrested yet our water companies have agreed quotas for causing lasting long term damage to species and environments with similar levels of supposed protection.

It’s like robin hood in reverse.  The rich are stealing from the poor to feed the rich.  In fact, they’re stealing from fish, voles, plants and flies that can’t even speak up for themselves.  All to line pockets in Kuala Lumpur.

It may well be the end of the coarse season but for me the middle of March is a short period where I can look back at the last few months, congratulate myself on a winter well spent and quietly stow the #10 rod and wire traces away until autumn.

The river banks and meadows are coming to life; Daffodils are springing from the ground, almost ready to explode in their yellow glory and the cherry trees as I walk along the Nadder in Salisbury are just bursting into colour, heavy with the first blossoms of spring. It’s a couple of weeks until the clocks change and to me, that’s cause for celebration. After a long, albeit mild and dry winter it’s time to throw the wooly hats into dusty corners and break out the baseball cap and sunblock (nearly).

With a bounce in my step I’ve been walking the banks of the Nadder at Wilton watching the Large Dark Olives flutter off. I’ve been busy cleaning the #4 line, tying flies in size 16, 18 and 20 and generally feeling excited. The 14th March may be closing day and an ending but more importantly I feel, the 1st of April is opening day for trout fishing. These few weeks are all about looking back whilst excitedly wishing time away and planning. A short window of enforced fishing abstinence, like a sorbet to cleanse the palet between courses.

It’s not all good news however. The River Wylye is sitting at around 23% of it’s long term average flow and on my stretch of the Nadder shingle banks have appeared in places where I wouldn’t expect them until June. The Nadder will respond well to any summer rainfall and I’m fairly confident that she will do OK but the Wylye is a real concern. But enough worry. For today I’m being positive and looking forward to a great trout season and anyway, if things do go tits up on the rivers there’s always Bass & Mullet on the coastline to look forward to.

Malcolm

Funnily enough, hearing this just brought back a flood of memories of family holidays in France as a child. Four kids crammed in the back of a car for hours on end, with dad taking wrong turns and mis-reading signs. Good times. Or at least, looking back on it they were the best of times.

In an effort to make my son suffer the same pain, I’m going to drag him across France this summer but that’s not why I started rambling about sunshine. I’d best get on with it and stop rambling on about old holidays.

Oh, OK then, just one example? How about the time dad went through a red light and when stopped by a cross Gendarme, explained in his best Geordie “NON! Ce’st Orange!”. A Gallic shrug and a realisation that it just wasn’t worth the paperwork and we were on our way, John Denver on the cassette player and sunshine in our eyes.

I’d planned to have a day’s pike fishing on Saturday with my good friends Luke and Graham (who writes wildflies). At the last minute Luke had to work, but anyone who’s read my diary before will probably be sick of the sight of him holding fish anyway.

Meeting Graham in the car park in Wilton we headed off, into the unseasonably spring-like February morning. We’d decided that a trip down to the Lower Stour at Throop would be our best bet at locating a moster as I’m still chasing my river 20lb pike.

After nipping into Davis Tackle and rubbing shoulders with the ghosts of angling celebrities we were off and on the banks of the Stour. I think Graham was initially a bit in awe of being on the hallowed banks of Throop, expecting to bump into Martin Bowler, John Wilson and Chris Yates at every turn. Unfortunately, he had to make do with me.

On with half a budgie tied to a 4/0 hook and second cast and the water at my feet boiled in green spotty fury. Unfortunately the fish failed to stick and despite my best attempts refused to come back for another go.

We fished the whole length of Throop over the day. From the airman’s grave at the top end, where the red arrow crashed last summer, right down to the tidal waters around Iford where we dodged golf balls thwacked by inept golfers and watched a white egret fishing on Iford Weir.

The sun shone down on our backs, and only the fact that trees remained steadfastly leaf-less and the ground still had the winter brown coat on reminded us that it was indeed February. Sitting eating lunch in 14 degrees was an unexpected joy, freckles soaking up some early rays.

After walking the full eight miles from one end of the fishery to the other we decided to pop into the middle of the Avon on the way home as casting a #10 line with a half pound roach attached to the end for five hours just was’t enough like hard work.

Graham got his groove on, landing a few nice pretty smaller pike while I resolutely blanked. No monsters to report. The bright sunshine maybe to blame for a lack of fish, perhaps it was the air temperature. Perhaps it was the dog walkers and horse riders? Perhaps my casting was crap? (surely not?) but the sunshine on my shoulders? That certainly made me happy.

Genius words from the smooth young Mr Broderick indeed. Life has been moving so fast in the Anderson household that I haven’t had a chance to write here for quite a bit. Work’s hectic, being a dad is a full time occupation and in between I’ve just delivered the first draft (how many are to come I know not) of a chapter on chalkstreams for an upcoming book. I was starting to go a little out of my mind as I’m unaccustomed to being stuck in dreary January with no winter trip to look forward to. In a deliberate move to stave off the January blues I did the only thing left to do, took some time out and went fishing.

Trouble is, chucking #10 lines out with 7″ flies attached to the end can really put some strain on your arm. In fact this week I fished so much that my casting hand/wrist/arm hurts like hell. I’d like to tell you that like a certain Mr Smith from the Monnow that my wrist hurts from developing an unhealthy obsession with Kylie Minogue. Alas, nothing so easy to explain or clean up. I guess my casting, poor as it is with a #4 rod has it’s errors multiplied tenfold when faced with a pike rod. Loops don’t so much tail, they gain a life of their own. In fact some of Saturdays casts could happily come round my house later in the evening and rob me while I sleep. Whichever way you look at it, I ache.

Still, I’ve had oodles of fresh air, I’ve blown the January blues away and I fished the Dorset Stour, Hampshire Avon, Nadder, Yeo and Parrett all in one week. I’ve fished with some good friends, laughed and mucked about something chronic. If anyone ever asks why you fish with friends, there’s a temptation to talk all philosophical but truth be told, that’s a load of crap. You fish with friends because it’s a lot like being a kid again and hanging out with your mates. Nothing else comes into your head but what’s around the next bend, or lurking in the corner of the next pool.

A couple of the shots below are courtesy of Graham who writes www.wildflies.com. Thanks Graham, see you for round two in a couple of weeks.

No rant this time, I’m saving that up til I have a little more time. I’ll leave you with a reminder. Stop and look around.

- I’ve removed the youtube link as it did funny things to the formatting of images on the page

There’s loads of things I could write about the year, or how it ended with friends fishing for Pike today. How we barbecued steak on the river bank and drank mulled wine and cups of strong tea made in a kelly kettle. Instead, I’m going to leave you with a pictoral summary of the past twelve months.

Enjoy.